Human Rights Law & Institutions

There is strong evidence that the legal recognition and protection of human rights is an important factor contributing to the realisation of human rights on the ground. Despite this, Australia is the only modern developed democracy not to enshrine human rights in a national law.

The Human Rights Law Centre works to strengthen the legal protection of human rights at the national, state and territory levels by contributing to policy development and running significant human rights cases in the courts.

News

History has been made with the Palaszczuk Government’s Human Rights Bill passing the Queensland Parliament today. Queensland now joins Victoria and the ACT as the third Australian jurisdiction with a Human Rights Act or Charter.

Queensland’s Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee has given the thumbs up to the creation of a Human Rights Act. The Committee tabled its report last night and a final vote will take place in the Parliament in the coming months.

The Queensland Government’s budget, which was handed down this week, features $2.3 million of funding over four years for the state’s Anti-Discrimination Commission to help it administer the Human Rights Act that the Government will soon be introducing.

Queenslanders are one step closer to having their human rights protected in law, following confirmation from the Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath that the Queensland Government is moving ahead with establishing a Human Rights Act.

The Victorian Government must address the underlying causes of damaging incidents in youth justice centres including staffing and lockdowns, the Human Rights Law Centre has said in a submission to a Victorian Parliamentary inquiry

“We are seeing a clear and worrying wave of state-based laws that restrict the ability of Australians to stand together and speak out on issues that they care deeply about. The government may disagree with protesters' views on a particular issue, but shutting down peaceful assemblies only serves to weaken our democracy,” said HRLC's Emily Howie.

“All the data shows that these laws are being overwhelmingly used against Aboriginal people. Twenty-six years ago the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made clear that locking someone up should only ever be a last resort and that police should be required to consider safer options,” said HRLC's Adrianne Walters.

“The push to weaken the laws by some has run aground. It’s hard to imagine what those pushing for change want people to be able to say that they currently can’t. Any move to weaken the law itself would have sent a green light to racism,” said the Human Rights Law Centre’s Director of Legal Advocacy, Adrianne Walters.

In a recent Victorian decision, a mother and daughter, Betty and Maria Matsoukatidou, won an important Supreme Court Human Rights Charter case on the fair hearing and equality obligations owed by courts to self-represented litigants, and in particular those with learning disabilities.

The Human Rights Law Centre welcomes Commonwealth Attorney-General George Brandis' announcement today that Australia would ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other mistreatment (OPCAT) by the end of the year.

In October 2016, Queensland Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk announced at state conference her cabinet’s commitment to introduce a Human Rights Act in Queensland. If passed, Queensland will become the third Australian jurisdiction to protect and promote human rights in law. The announcement comes of the back of a community campaign for human rights protection in Queensland.

The secrecy provisions of the 2015 Border Force Act have compromised Australians’ basic democratic rights and damaged Australia’s international standing, the Human Rights Law Centre told the United Nations overnight in a statement to the Human Rights Council.

Today the Commonwealth Attorney-General George Brandis announced the appointment of Mr Edward Santow as Human Rights Commissioner, the Hon Dr Kay Patterson as Age Discrimination Commissioner and Mr Alastair McEwin as Disability Discrimination Commissioner.

A Human Rights Act would be a force for good in protecting the rights of all Queenslanders and would deliver significant benefits, the Human Rights Law Centre has told the Queensland Parliament’s Human Rights Inquiry.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, yesterday met with Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, at the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur and expressed concern over the detention conditions in Australia’s offshore processing centres and encouraged the Prime Minister to reconsider Operation Sovereign Borders.

Australia’s human rights performance will face intense scrutiny next week as the Government appears before the Human Rights Council in Geneva for its major four yearly human rights review. At the "Universal Periodic Review" (UPR) other countries will have the opportunity to question Australia about its human rights record and make a series of recommendations for improvement.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has issued an urgent call to the governments of Australia and Nauru to find a decent solution for 'Abyan' - a refugee being held on Nauru who is 15 weeks pregnant after reportedly being raped on Nauru in July. The UN has spoken directly with Abyan.

In the lead up to Australia’s review by the UN Human Rights Council, the HRLC and other NGOs along with the Australian Human Rights Commission visited Geneva to brief UN member states on the human rights situation in Australia and key issues that should be considered as part of the review.

Australia has been accused of seeking to weaken criticism of Cambodia’s appalling human rights record during negotiations on an important resolution at the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The HRLC has joined with Human Rights Watch to produce a report detailing how Australia can “lift its game” on human rights at home and abroad in order to strengthen its bid for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Sep 23, 2015

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